After the stunning conclusion to Apple TV+‘s hit dystopian thriller series, Silo, anticipation is already building feverishly toward the second season. Star and executive producer Rebecca Ferguson recently spoke with Collider‘s Steve Weintraub and opened up on the plans for the second season, which will find her character Juliette Nichols in a bit of a bind – outside the silo with nowhere to go. Surrounded by countless other silos – but are they all connected?

One unanswered question from the first season relates to the very bottom of the silo. Juliette has a crippling fear of water, and very nearly ends up in what looks like a reservoir at the base. But surely that will come into play again? Chekhov’s water, if you like. To that question, Ferguson was quick to tease:

“Oh, buddy, you’re gonna have to see. That is such a good question. If I tell you, I’m gonna have to kill you. So, you know, we’re stuck in that. There’s a big door down there. I know we haven’t activated the door without wanting to explore what the door might be. I’m just gonna leave it right there.”

How Long Could Silo Run?

The series is adapted from the writings of Hugh Howey. The series started in 2011 with the short story “Wool,” which was later published together with four sequel novellas as a novel with the same name. Along with “Wool,” the series consists of Shift, Dust, three short stories, and Wool: The Graphic Novel. This means that the series could quite easily be a straight three-season run, or could be expanded, depending on how the creative team—and of course, Apple TV+—feel about the show.

For Ferguson, she’s signed her contract, and she’s locked in for “two, three years” going forward. As for speculating about how many seasons it could run for, Ferguson would prefer to focus on number two and see where it takes them, with her plan being to shoot Silo for the foreseeable future—SAG-AFTRA strike pending, that is. She went to say:

“I’m a businesswoman. I go in with my head screwed on. I sign a contract and make a deal. I’m not gonna tell you what that deal is. [Laughs] I very much know what I want. It’s down to my wonderful team at Apple, as well, to see what they wanna do. You know, we all save our backs. We see what works for the future. At my age and with what I’ve done, you don’t get to a point where you go, “Let’s see what happens,” you know? I’m already blocking off November for another shoot.”

Ferguson continued, “I think two, three years ahead. Right now, sir, it’s one fantastic fucking show, and we’ve green-lit number two. Apple is extremely happy, and I’m happier. That’s where I’m gonna leave it. We started filming Season 2 quite recently, so we are chockablock, smack back in the beginning of the shoot. I am doing this for some time in the future.”

Ferguson is a Fan of Silo’s Production and Apple TV+

Where Ferguson was happy to elaborate, however, was her praise of both Apple and the production of the series. Lauding their ability to combine techniques and styles, bringing in directors and seeing what works and what doesn’t was an aspect of Season 1 that was widely praised. Ferguson expects that process to be further streamlined as the show evolves into its sophomore year.

“We work with different units and different directors, and it’s something I really love because everyone has their style and their technique,” she said. “So what we’ve seen in Season 1 is not a smash of what worked and what didn’t work, it’s an ongoing change because we have new directors dedicated to new episodes. And they will themselves see what they like or didn’t like, or where they want to take it, and what feeling they want. Do they want, you know, Wes Anderson? Do they want David Lynch? Where do they want to take it?” She went on to say:

“And that’s what I love. It’s the creative individual, right for their episodes. And then, obviously, there is a thread going through, you can’t sort of wing it in every direction, but there is a lot to be learned. But we all learn different things, and we all love different things. But what’s really amazing is—and once again, I can throw it back to Apple, but I am one of their biggest fans—their trust in this process, their trust in Graham and in the directors and in us, gives us such freedom to actually feel free to create. It’s not a common thing for studios to be like that as a buff. So it’s a playground. It’s a fantastic playground.”

She continued on to say, “I feel like a sponsor for them, but I really love them. And take away the fact that we’re doing Silo, the shows are so meticulously thought through of what they make, why they make it. You can see a thread of the quality that they make, so I feel so bloody honored that we are making it for Apple.”

A key component of that creative process is the writing on the show, with Graham Yost playing a major part in it. During a writers’ strike, the work of those behind the screenplays becomes more magnified—it always should be—but Ferguson adores the way the show sets up ideas and then pays them off. She’s a fan of how it doesn’t need to answer every question, but answers them enough to have you come back for more. Ferguson went on to say:

“What I feel with the writers—and I’m referring to Season 2, seeing it further on—things that I have questioned before and things that I was wondering about really ties up. If Graham is very good at something, it is tying knots together. It might not give you a complete answer to things, but enough to satisfy your urge of the huge questions. Then you have emotional feelings, or why or how did that happen? And you know, we might not want to answer all of those questions, down to character, as well, and our own little secrets we sit on as actors. But the way things are linked together, it’s brilliantly written. Absolutely brilliant.”

One might think playing Juliette could end up being a career-defining role for Ferguson. The lead in an acclaimed series—particularly when she’s already become such a star through the likes of Mission: Impossible—certainly puts you on a certain trajectory, but the chance to tell a story over a prolonged period of time gets you out there more, and it allows you to reflect on what aspects of the character require more nuance and get more of yourself into that performance.

In the case of Juliette, however, she’s so closed off from everybody else that Ferguson almost had to fight to keep from putting too much of her own personality into it, which was her biggest challenge.

“I think I was having so much fun… For me, Rebecca, I am a person, I’m curious, I lean in, I’m so sure in work or interviews or promotions. I speak a lot. I’m not loud, but I’m not scared of making a fool out of myself. Privately home, I’m quite quiet and I’m very calm. I have two very separate identities. Juliette is awkward, and I am not socially awkward. I mean, I am maybe because I’m very blunt [laughs], and people might find it uncomfortable, but I’m not Juliette in the sense that she’s very socially awkward and she doesn’t like people. She doesn’t like being close to them, she doesn’t like their energy. She walks around people. And sometimes, when I was comfortable in the scene, I forgot about it, and I moved into my own character. So I had little tricks that I had to do for myself to kick myself into Juliette. The way that she holds herself and the shrug or she leans back when people lean forward, and I found that quite hard.”

Silo Season 1 can be seen in its entirety now, on Apple TV+.

 

via Collider